As well as providing song previews in MP3 format as above, we are starting to try out
a new format for song downloads - Ogg Vorbis, which is an alternative to the common
MP3 format. We have found that Ogg Vorbis audio files are of a higher
quality than comparable MP3 files. It is possible that your media player
already supports Ogg format if you are using WinAmp in Windows or iTunes on a
Mac. If you are, try downloading and playing the Ogg versions of What a
Friend and see if you can hear the difference:

Here's a link to the Ogg Vorbis web site if you
are interested in finding out more about this new format.

Background About the Song

This inspirational song started out as a poem written by Joseph M. Scriven to his
ailing mother around the mid 1850's. It was later published in a book of
poems. Some time later, Charles C. Converse put the words to music

Arranging and Performance Notes

When selecting an old hymn or spiritual for arranging in a jazz idiom, there are
a few factors to consider. One of the most important is the melodic rhythm
and What a Friend We Have in Jesus sounds great when it's swung.

I began this arrangement with a formal, classical choir sound as an interesting
way to get into the rest of the song.

Within this piece, there is a lot of harmonic, rhythmic and modulatory
exploration. Actually, I learned so much from it that I feel my
musical awareness, such as it is, is moving on to a higher level.

We've recorded all the vocal tracks for this multi-part a'cappella song as well as an
initial mix (which you can hear by clicking on one of the links close to the top of the page).

Recording Chain:

Studio Projects C1 Microphone

Manley Labs VoxBox Preamp

M-Audio Delta 1010 A/D

Sonar XL 2.0

Mixing Details:

Each track used the following effects bin inserts:

Ultrafunk fx-EQ

Ultrafunk fx-Delay

AnalogX Sample-Slide

The fx-EQ was used primarily to tame the bright C1 microphone, as well as to blend the
bass and tenor voices in with the soprano and alto parts. The fx-EQ was
also used to knock off some low end "mud" from the reverb return.

The fx-Delay effect was used in two ways. One fx-delay was placed in each
track's effects bin to create a Haas
effect, using a (short) delay time proportional to the stereo position of the
vocal. Longer, rhythmic delays were used in aux-bus bins: two for the left
channel and two for the right, one left/right pair to 1/4 note and 3 x 1/4 note values
and the other set to 1/2 note and 3 x 1/2 note values (the latter left/right pair used
at a much lower level).

The bass and tenor tracks were sung an octave up and then dropped down an octave using
RBC Audio's Voice Tweaker.

For reverb, we created a 100% wet reverb track for each track and mixed it with the
corresponding dry track. These reverb tracks were created using Sound
Forge's Acoustic Mirror Impulse Response reverb plug-in with a IR file created at the
Bethel Church in Boston.

The Main bus had one effect:

Ultrafunk Multi-band Compressor

We're not completely satisfied with the mix yet, especially in our use of the reverb
and delay effects, so we'll be working on it some more... stay tuned for an
updated mix.